Monthly Archives: February 2015

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A Pastoral Pop Quiz

Training Elders

Elder Candidate Training began last night at IDC and we always start our officer training in the same way: a surprise “Bible & Theology Exam.” Some might call it cruelty, others might call it prudent, but I call it “lively spirituality.”

The pop test is an entertaining and interesting way to start the period of assessment and instruction. We don’t take up the tests and grade them. When each candidate is finished we come back together and walk through the questions. The exercise is simply meant to encourage the officer candidate in his knowledge of God’s word. Some men will take the test and find it challenging. To a man, these brothers have responded with something like, “The test has shown me how much I need to grow.” Others have taken the test and done extremely well. We want those brothers to be encouraged to keep up their good work in His word.

Take Them & Use Them

Here are the two tests we use with some explanation of each:

Exam for Elders. Our elder training is a long affair of about eight months. Intentional conversation at training meetings and our theological questionnaire give us a great sense of the candidate’s theological aptitude by the end of training. This exam lets us tease out the amount of precision the candidate currently has regarding God’s word.

Exam for Deacons. Our deacon training is not nearly as long or exhaustive as what we do with elder candidates. This exam is thus broader in nature than the elder one, testing out the candidate’s understanding of biblical and theological basics. I put this together a few years ago for incoming pastoral interns at Providence Church. While the elder exam is in multiple choice format this one is in more of a short answer structure.

Feel free to download, adapt, or trash these exams for your purposes. If you want another option check out Kevin DeYoung’s “100 Bible Knowledge Questions.”

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When Death Strikes

The End of Death

For Ryan, Jayme, and Eli

I’ve been helped these last few months, when thinking about the Smiths, by an old poem of John Donne’s titled, “Death, Be Not Proud.” It says,

Death, be not proud, though the whole world fear you:
mighty and dreadful you may seem,
but death, be not proud—for your pride has failed you— you will not kill me.
Though you may dwell in plague and poison,
You’re a slave to Fate and desperate men—
So death, if your sleep be the gates to heaven, why your confidence?
You will be no more. Even death will die.

A Season of Unusual Suffering

When we began our fall series on Job I was personally stepping into waters of great trepidation. Who in our church would be met with unexpected suffering over the course of our study? Who would say the truth from Job arrive “just in time” for them during a season of pain and hardship?

I didn’t think those questions were unrealistic. God is sovereign over His powerful word. It is never accidental that a church hears the text it hears each week it gathers together. If, after much humble prayer and meditation, a new book of the Bible is selected for study, I take it to mean God wants those people to hear that book at that time. If you agree with that statement, then a mere cursory knowledge of Job would lead you to conclude – like me – that unusual suffering might be coming our way this fall.

And came it did.

The fall of 2014 will be indelibly written on my heart as a season of shepherding a small church through unusual suffering. Unusual suffering that included this story of the Smiths and little Eli.

When Questions Become Real

In almost every one of our studies in Job I tried to pull out from the individual text what I saw as the dominant question at that moment in Job’s experience of suffering. I went back and looked and here were the questions we’d considered in the month leading up to when Ryan and Jayme first found out about Eli’s condition:

  • Will you magnify God even if you suffer innocently?
  • Will you trust God even if your suffering is unexplainable?
  • Will you hope in God if [no one understands your pain]?
  • Will you trust God is for you when your suffering makes no sense?

Little did any of us know how real those questions were about to become to Ryan and Jayme’s experience. It was the week after that last question that Emily got a phone call from Jayme telling us the news about little Eli. A few hours later in a text message exchange we had Ryan said, “We are thankful for your teaching on Job. There was never any doubt that we’d need it, we just hoped it wouldn’t be so soon.” My immediate thought was, “Me too brother. Me too.”

Faithful Acceptance When God Doesn’t Answer

One of the more amazing things about Job’s story is that he never gets an answer from God of why he was made to suffer so grievously. We know from chapters one and two because the reader peaks behind the veil of heaven. All Job gets is a sovereign God appearing in a whirlwind saying, “All you need to know is that I’m sovereign over everything.” So in and around Thanksgiving as we walked through the whirlwind chapters the main thoughts we considered were:

  • Trust in God’s sovereignty will sustain you through suffering.
  • Surrendering to God’s sovereignty will keep you steadfast in suffering.

I know you all agree, and we’ve already celebrated tonight, that Ryan and Jayme have modeled surrender to and trust in a God sovereign over their suffering. I have personally taken a few encouragements and challenges from the Smiths through this season that I’m sure many of you will resonate with.

The sweetness of God’s sovereignty. The most consistent Bible verse I’ve heard from Ryan and Jayme these past few months is Job 1:28, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” I remember saying in our study of that text, “I’ve always wondered if I would respond like Job when surprising suffering comes my way?” I don’t have to wonder about Ryan and Jayme. Their lives and words have preached a powerful sermon these last few months. A message that says there’s a powerful and peculiar sweetness in knowing God is sovereign, even over the matters of pain and loss.

The sweetness of Christ’s victory. Richard Sibbes a Puritan so enflamed with love for Christ he was called the “Sweet Dropper” for all his joyful meditations on God’s glory once said, “Death is only a grim porter to let us into a stately palace.” Faith in Christ give Christians a totally new perspective on death. It’s why Paul can say, “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” It’s why the Smiths can say in an email, “We are thankful that God has taken Eli in a way that was easiest for him, and that he is now in his permanent home, worshiping the Lord. It is hard to believe that we have a child who has gone home before us, but we take so much comfort in that reality.”

That reality which the Bible declares,

 Behold! I tell you a mystery . . .

 “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

 Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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“Come Ye Sinners”

Joseph Hart’s old hymn “Come Ye Sinners” is one I’d love to see make its way into every congregation’s song library. It’s a simple, yet earnest call to come to the Lord Jesus. One of the better modern arrangements you can find is one I doubt you’ve come across.

When I was a student pastor back in 2007 one of my former student leaders have me an album named “Grace Comes Home” by a band named Cambridge. Surrounded by decent covers of the time’s popular praise songs is a bright and full rendition of Hart’s singing gospel call. Check it out below and then consider singing one of the lesser known verses.

LYRICS

Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love and power.

Refrain

I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior,
O there are ten thousand charms.

Come, ye thirsty, come, and welcome,
God’s free bounty glorify;
True belief and true repentance,
Every grace that brings you nigh.

Come, ye weary, heavy laden,
Lost and ruined by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all.

View Him prostrate in the garden;
On the ground your Maker lies.
On the bloody tree behold Him;
Sinner, will this not suffice?

Lo! th’incarnate God ascended,
Pleads the merit of His blood:
Venture on Him, venture wholly,
Let no other trust intrude.

Let not conscience make you linger,
Not of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.

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Calling All Pastor-Scholars

Faith and Scholarship

Near limitless forks can be found, and pursued, on the road marked, “Faith & Scholarship.”

One could channel George Marsden in confronting our day’s authoritative assumption “that our educational system would be better off if it were free from the heritages of ancient religious learning.”1 Another could interact with David Crump’s assertion in his recent work, Encountering Jesus, Encountering Scripture: Reading the Bible Critically in Faith, that “Christian faith should not be a mental sedative that puts reason to sleep; instead, it should cause reason to be resurrected.”2 Others might choose to walk down the path of discussing how the Christian faith relates to areas of secular scholarship such as bioethics, law, and English literature. This brief essay, however, chooses to walk down an old, yet oft-forgotten path called, “The Pastor-Scholar.” This path is where faith and scholarship have historically been intertwined. Although formidable in history, the pastor-scholar road is now fraught with bumpy questions like, “Should pastors devote energy to the pursuits of scholarly contribution? Is not the work of scholarship best left to reside in university walls and professorial ivory towers?”

My simple contention in this small slice of the intersection between faith and scholarship is that Christ’s church needs more pastors engaged in the work scholarship. If we would see a growing number of faithful scholars doing their work in the context of a local church I believe we would see the perpetuation of three things: an educated ministry, a fed laity, and a flourishing society.

Delineating the Audience

It must be acknowledged from the outset a need to limit the already limited path I have chosen. Two limitations are necessary—a definition and a caveat. First, I am working with the definition of Christian scholarship as, “The pursuit of glorifying God through advanced academic competence.” D.A. Carson makes a similar point in his discussion on the nature of a pastor-scholar by saying, “[We are] talking . . . about pastoral work in the framework of rather more advanced technical competence than is customarily the case.”3

We must also say not every pastor is called to be a scholar any more than every pastor is called to have six children. May God rain down special blessings on those he calls to scholarship and a large quiver! Any number of constraints against scholarship may push against the pursuit of “advanced academic competence.” Acknowledging these constraints, Doug Sweeney remarks, “Some don’t have the time. Many are serving churches that won’t allow this kind of stewardship. Some don’t have the intellectual gifts or writing skills . . . So let’s be honest about this: the kind of [scholarly] leadership that the world so desperately needs is not for everyone engaged in pastoral ministry.”4

Yet, when there is a happy, Spirit-wrought combination of the various abilities required—intellectual ability, financial capability, and margin of time—for scholarship, pastors should consider the following benefits that advanced academic pursuits can bring to Christ’s church and the world at large.

“The Best Theologians Were Parish Pastors”

In his book Jonathan Edwards and The Ministry of the Word Sweeney writes, “In the early twenty-first century, when many pastors have abdicated their responsibilities as theologians, and many theologians do their work in a way that is lost on the people of God, we need to recover Edwards’ model of Christian ministry. Most of the best theologians in the history of the church were parish pastors.”5 Gerald Hiestand’s survey of the mighty scholars of old leads him to similarly conclude, “The heritage of pastors such as Irenaeus, Athanasius, Basil, Augustine, Anselm, Luther, Calvin, Edwards, Wesley, etc., all demonstrate the viability—indeed desirability—of uniting ecclesial ministry and robust theological scholarship.”6

A humble and earnest pursuit of advanced academic work will ordinarily be a boon to an increasingly educated ministry. Sure, outliers exist. Some pastor-scholars’ education may in fact be a disservice because their increasing intellect only serves to make them increasingly inaccessible to the ordinary church member. On the whole, however, educated ministers bring edifying ministries. The great apostle said, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). Scholarly pursuits in the realms of theology, hermeneutics, or the original languages of Scripture provide pastors with a deeper facility in handling God’s word. A deeper facility, with God’s word, gained through advanced study, provides potential for greater spiritual prosperity in God’s church. Hiestand agrees, “More [scholars] in our pulpits will deepen the theological integrity of our churches, while at the same time add an ecclesial voice to evangelical theology.”7

But we should not limit a pastor’s academic work to the essential academic arenas of Bible and theology. A pastor’s pursuit of competence in the field of ethics would surely God’s people who are surrounded by no shortage of ethical quagmires. Pastors trained as historians would have a unique ability to see through the vanity of fascination with contemporaneity. If a pastor immersed himself in classical literature we would not be silly to expect his sermons would contain powerful, moving language.

Ordinary pastors pursuing extraordinary study, with the Spirit’s help, can be unique blessings to the family of God. world at large.

Growing So They Might Grow

Feeding the word of God to the people of God is the ordinary work of a pastor’s ministry. Faithful pastors long to see their congregation’s spiritual girth continually expanding. Several positive effects of a pastor’s scholarship were mentioned above, but we can add something of a guiding principle here. Michael Bird, with a nod to Hiestand, hits on the principle in this elongated sentence, “The theological integrity of the gospel in the Christian community will never rise above the level of her pastors and ecclesial theologians are best situated to produce ecclesially sensible, field-tested, theological work that deepens the faith and depth of the church.”8 What’s this maxim calling for every pastor’s attention? It’s the truth that a congregation rarely exceeds her pastor’s growth in the grace and knowledge of Christ. A pastor’s growth, ordinarily, is inextricably linked to the church’s growth. And so we see the tie to Christian scholarship. Because faithful scholarship is by nature an exercise in growth—growing precision in awareness and aptitude­—we can expect faithful pastor-scholars will be turbochargers for Christ-centered transformation in their Christian communities. As he grows, they will grow.

Expanding Into the World

Ellen Charry has recently argued in her compelling work God and the Art of Happiness that much modern Christian theology lacks a hearty doctrine of human flourishing.9 She reminds us joyful growth in the grace and knowledge of Christ is never meant to merely terminate on the one in whom the transformation happens. The happiness of Christ is meant to radiate out to the stations of society in which we live. If it does not do so, we would be taking the spiritual lamps and putting them under a basket (cf. Matt. 5:15).

It seems, in popular opinion, most pastors fear scholarship will prohibit them from contributing towards human flourishing. “Will advanced academics inebriate me to the life of ordinary people?” Of course it could, but scholarship wedded to faith looks out, because faith looks out to Christ. When proper academic pursuits are married to biblical faith, scholarship becomes a catalyst for the flourishing of ideas, practices, and conformity into Christ’s image. Is scholarship all we need for human flourishing? Surely none would think so. Yet, woven into the fabric of God’s creation, his society, is the joy of knowing. Scholarship gives impetus to deeper and more meaningful knowing, and thus richer community.

It’s a Two-Way Street

This essay is something of a surface-level scratch into the conviction that Christ’s church needs more pastors devoted to scholarship. It is a belief currently driving my own advanced studies in the midst of pastoral ministry. I believe the family of faith needs more leaders modeling in their midst the relationship between faith and scholarship. Where these faithful pastor-scholars increase we are not foolish to hope an educated ministry, growing laity, and flourishing society will follow. There are encouraging trends in this reclamation of the role of pastor-scholar. New publications are due this year commending and instructing the vision.10 New fellowships like The Center for Pastor Theologians offer tangible, ecumenical hands and feet to the model.

There is one more thing that must be said on the matter at hand and it is this: the church’s need for pastors devoted to scholarship is a two-way street. Not only do we need ordained pastors prayerfully and happily pursuing advanced academic competence, we also need Christians scholars already engaged in advanced academia to root themselves in local church ministry. May the Spirit give many of these scholars an aspiration to the office of elder. A cursory survey of Christian scholars, across disciplines, reveals the Spirit is indeed working in such a way. Let us long for, pray for, and work for many more pastor-scholars to shepherd Christ’s sheep and model the marriage of faith to scholarship.

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[1] George Marsden, The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 3.

[2] David Crump, Encountering Jesus, Encountering Scripture: Reading the Bible Critically in Faith (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013), 132.

[3] D.A. Carson and John Piper, The Pastor as Scholar & The Scholar as Pastor: Reflections on Life and Ministry (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 72-73.

[4] Douglas A. Sweeney, “A Call and Agenda for Pastor-Theologians,” The Gospel Coalition Blog, April 26, 2012, accessed February 22, 2015, http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/a-call-and-agenda-for-pastor-theologians

[5] Douglas A. Sweeney, Jonathan Edwards and The Ministry of the Word: A Model of Faith and Thought, (Downer’s Grove: IVP, 2009), 199.

[6] Gerald Hiestand, “Taxonomy of the Pastor-Theologian: Why PhD Students Should Consider the Pastorate as the Context for Their Theological Scholarship,” The Expository Times 124 (November 2012): 261.

[7] Hiestand, “Taxonomy of the Pastor-Theologian,” 264.

[8] Michael F. Bird, “Why We Need More Doctorates in the Pastorate!” Patheos Blod: Euangelion, March 21, 2013, accessed February 23, 2015, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/euangelion/2013/03/why-we-need-more-doctorates-in-the-pastorate/

[9] Ellen Charry, God and the Art of Happiness (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010).

[10] Kevin J. Vanhoozer and Owen Strachan, The Pastor as Public Theologian: Reclaiming a Lost Vision, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2015); Gerald Hiestand and Todd Willson, The Pastor Theologian: Resurrecting an Ancient Vision, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015).

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Surprised By His Love Lately?

1 John Podcast

John says, “And now, little children, abide in him.” We saw last week how the command to abide in Jesus means continually living in Jesus through His word and in His spirit. Such abiding, John says, has a future purpose.

The Pure One is Coming

Notice how the verse continues, “[A]bide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.” Jesus is coming soon and John says you will either stand in confidence or shrink in shame. Never forget that Jesus’ second coming will be one of comfort for some and terror for others. What is it specifically that John thinks will give confidence at Jesus’ coming? Devotion to God’s word and Spirit; abiding in Jesus. Continuance in Christ now gives confidence then.

See now how in 2:29 John elaborates on this relationship with Jesus. He writes, “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.” This is like John’s spiritual paternity test: if God is your Father, if you’ve been born of him you be growing in the practice of righteousness. That’s one way to know if you are truly a Christian. It’s also our first clue on what “being like Jesus” means—it means growing in righteousness, as He is righteous. But what does that look like? Practicing righteousness is reflecting the standard of all that is good and true. Jesus is righteous; He is the standard. We are to reflect Him, abide in Him . . . be like Him. Remember now, our righteousness isn’t the cause or condition of the new birth, but it is the evidence of it.

A Theological Rabbit Trail of Love

Do you have anyone in your life who tends to pursue rabbit trails in conversation? Or maybe your small group is often chasing down a conversational rabbit. If so, you have good company with John. The mention of people born of God gets John going down a wonderful rabbit trail for a few minutes as he thinks about the joy of the new birth; the reality that dead sinners can be made alive in Christ. Look at 3:1, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” This may be the height of John’s amazement at and adoration of God in the whole letter. The Greek word he uses for “what kind of” (patopen) means “of what country” and show us how unusual God’s love is: it’s of another country, another world! John wants us to feel the force of God’s love and find it taking our breath away.

As soon as each one of our boys has been able to say, “Daddy,” I’ve given them a Stone family catechism of sorts. I ask, “Who loves you?” To which I train them to say, “Daddy.” In the course of a normal week whether it be driving in the car, wrestling, or during times of discipline the question will randomly pop up, “Who loves you?” By this point the training is so engrained within the boys answer with as much though as they give to breathing.

I can’t help but wonder if the same thing has happened to many us as Christians. We know the truth of God’s love and are functionally unaffected by it; that’s how familiar it is to us. We are in a sad state if we are not surprised by God’s love for us. For why should he invite us into His family? Or maybe you are so aware of your own sin that you think, “Why would He welcome me into His family? He’d never want me.” The simple answer is: because He loves you. Faith in Jesus is the confirmation of God’s love. For faith God’s gift of grace to those whom He loves. Do you have faith, even small faith, in Christ? Than you know God loves you.

This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “The Light of Righteousness,” on 1 John 2:28-3:10.

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In The Room

1417633937071I’m always eager to find edifying podcasts to help redeem times in travel and exercise. I recently came across a useful new podcast hosted by Ryan Huguley called “In The Room.”

Check out his recent episode with the fantastic David Murray on the matters of mental illness and happiness in the Christian life. Huguley says,

[Dr. Murray as] written a fascinating and helpful new book called, “The Happy Christian: Ten Ways to Be a Joyful Believer in a Gloomy World.”

In our conversation we discuss the unfortunate stigma surrounding mental health in the church, why our minds matter so much in the pursuit of happiness, and how we can live optimistic lives without losing a realistic grasp on the world we live in.

Listen to the conversation and then pick up a copy of The Happy Christian when it drops next week.

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Book to Buy: On Suffering

PrintYou will want to buy Todd Billings’ latest book, Rejoicing in Lament: Wrestling with Incurable Cancer & Life in Christ. Pastoral sensitivity and honest gravitas permeate each page. The Christian life is ordinarily one of suffering. Thus, we need helps to fuel joy in the pain. Rejoicing in Lament is a beautiful achievement.

Here’s what the publisher says:

At the age of thirty-nine, Christian theologian Todd Billings was diagnosed with a rare form of incurable cancer. In the wake of that diagnosis, he began grappling with the hard theological questions we face in the midst of crisis: Why me? Why now? Where is God in all of this? This eloquently written book shares Billings’s journey, struggle, and reflections on providence, lament, and life in Christ in light of his illness, moving beyond pat answers toward hope in God’s promises. Theologically robust yet eminently practical, it engages the open questions, areas of mystery, and times of disorientation in the Christian life. Billings offers concrete examples through autobiography, cultural commentary, and stories from others, showing how our human stories of joy and grief can be incorporated into the larger biblical story of God’s saving work in Christ.

Contents
1. Walking in the Fog: A Narrowed Future or a Spacious Place?
2. Sorting through the Questions: The Book of Job, the Problem of Evil, and the Limits of Human Wisdom
3. Lamenting in Trust: Praying with the Psalmist amid a Sea of Emotions
4. Lamenting to the Almighty: Discerning the Mystery of Divine Providence
5. Joining the Resistance: Lament and Compassionate Witness to the Present and Future King
6. Death in the Story of God and in the Church
7. Praying for Healing and Praying for the Kingdom
8. In the Valley: Toxins, Healing, and Strong Medicine for Sinners
9. The Light of Perfect Love in the Darkness: God’s Impassible Love in Christ
10. “I Am Not My Own”: Our Story Incorporated into Christ’s

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Some of the Hardest Work

Assembly Required

We started IDC with the conviction that weekly gathered worship is the central hub of a church’s life together. Here is where the ordinary means of grace are supernaturally dispensed. Here is where loving unity is established and constructed. Here is where corporate celebrations of God’s grace stir the soul. Here is where members are equipped and then commissioned as Christ’s ambassadors. All of that, and so much more, we believed down to the level of our spiritual gut.

The issue then became helping our members to see that wisdom and joy found in devotion to gathered worship.

A Uniquely Ordinary Struggle

Since its inception in January of 2013 IDC has assembled each week at a local Baptist church on Saturday nights. Gathering on Saturdays at 5pm has been a unique struggle. There is no shortage of competition for our people’s attention on Saturday nights—more so than on Sundays mornings, I think. About six months into the church’s life I began to notice a pattern with our members: the majority seemed to be gone half the time. Things are not always as they seem, so we spent the next six months keenly observing our attendance patterns, lest my assumptions be misguided. Our examination of the sheep revealed the average member was missing 22-26 weeks out of the annual 52.

Corporate health and unity can’t survive when most family members are gone six months each year.

We needed to get to work.

Putting a Plan into Place

At a Family Meeting (our bi-monthly members’ meeting) we communicated the pattern we’d observed and tried to address it biblically. We said,

We don’t want you to feel as though we are looking over an attendance list in a legalistic fashion, merely checking off who is present and not present. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” In light of this verse, one of the things we covenant to as a church is, “We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.”

What we want to do is encourage all of us to examine our orientation toward Saturday night. We are not expecting every member to get a “Perfect Attendance” ribbon at the end of each year, instead—because of Hebrews 10:25 and our church covenant—we want to encourage you to an ordinary prioritization of gathered worship. Here is where God promises to meet his people in the fullness of His mercy and grace. The corporate gathering is also the ordinary place where Christian discipleship and unity occurs. To be gone from gathered worship with great frequency means not only missing out on this “atomic power” of discipleship, but it also means putting your soul in a dangerous place. As Hebrews 10 says, commitment to corporate worship keep us close to Christ as we await His return.

That simple discussion got us headed in the right direction. To fuel growing affections for gathered worship we focused our efforts in four areas: shepherding, preaching, praying, and discipling. In other words, pastoring with a particular concentration.

Shepherding. Part of our elders’ shepherding work is a monthly check-in, normally by phone, with every member. On Sunday afternoon one elder sends out a breakdown of that week’s shepherding contacts. He gives a list of names, their contact info, and attendance pattern over the previous ten weeks. Thus, whenever a family has been absent for something like six weeks out of the last ten the elder is able to have that shepherding conversation with awareness. God has been very kind whenever these conversations have happened. He’s allowed our shepherding on this matter to be received for what it is—loving encouragement, not overbearing oversight.

Preaching. I’ve yet to preach a sermon on obedience to or do an exposition of Hebrews 10:24-25. I probably won’t. Rather, whenever the texts warrants it, I try to show how its truth bears on our corporate life together. I want to, through God’s word and Spirit, awaken our sense to the treasure of corporate worship. Instead of saying something like, “You must come to corporate worship,” we’d rather say, “Oh, do you see the power and joy found our weekly meetings? Do you see how God loves to meet with His people? Why would you want to miss out on fuel for happiness in God!” I hope our teaching stirs affections of delight more than adherence to duty.

Praying. The elders pray often for God to grant our church a degree of joy in weekly fellowship that creates palpable longing to be with God’s people. In the pastoral prayer I will sometimes pray for us to have growing eagerness to gather with the congregation. We have prayed along these lines at our monthly corporate prayer nights as well.

Discipling. We encourage small group leaders particularly to be conduits of Christlikeness in modeling and exhorting faithfulness to gathered worship.

Small Steps Still Mean You’re Moving

How then are we doing after almost twelve months of striving in these four areas? We still have so far to go. Yet, small steps are visible. At a recent elders’ meeting we talked about a member who had voiced concern over another sister in Christ who’d been gone for quite a while. And she’d taken it upon herself to reach out to this other member. We rejoiced in a small group leader who sat down with his group at the start of this year and humbly exhorted them to renewed devotion in gathering with the church each week.

We can get discouraged at the small steps or we can minster with gladness because of them. Small steps are indeed movement.

Where in your ministry do you see tangible steps in the right direction? Faithful plodding brings God glory no less than stupendous leaping.

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A Season for Smiling

“Let your warmest affection, your greatest cheerfulness, your most engaging smiles, be put on when you teach Scriptural truths to your children.” – John James